Azorean synagogue restoration project kicks off

The restoration of one of Portugal's oldest Jewish temples — the Sahar Hassamain Synagogue in Ponta Delgada, Azores — kicked off Monday.

Lurdes C. da Silva, O Jornal

PONTA DELGADA, Azores — The restoration of one of Portugal's oldest Jewish temples — the Sahar Hassamain Synagogue in Ponta Delgada, Azores — kicked off Monday in a ceremony conducted by Mayor José Manuel Bolieiro, and attended by state Sen. Michael Rodrigues, D-Westport, and Gideon Gradman, president of the Massachusetts based Azorean-Jewish Heritage Foundation.

The restoration project is scheduled to be completed in eight months. It will cost about $290,000, which will be provided by European Union groups devoted to the preservation of historical monuments.

"This intervention is not limited to recovering the architectural features" of the building, said Bolieiro at the ceremony held in the worship room of the synagogue. "We plan to create the necessary conditions for the preservation of the memory of Jewish presence in the Azores, through turning it into a museum."

The synagogue last functioned as a place of worship about 50 years ago. A library and museum will be incorporated into the main sanctuary.

"With so many people working on this for so long, it's exciting and thrilling to see it finally happening," said Rodrigues, who has been involved in the work of the Azorean-Jewish Heritage Foundation, which has lobbied for the temple's restoration.

The city of Ponta Delgada named historian José de Almeida Mello, from the University of the Azores, to coordinate the synagogue restoration. The project will soon have the support of two U.S. experts on Sephardic Judaism, according to Rodrigues.

The senator said two researchers — one from New York University and another from the Universtity of Texas at Austin — will travel to the Azores in May to identify and catalogue the many documents and artifacts found in the synagogue, some of them dating back to the 15th century.

"The Azorean-Jewish Heritage Foundation hired and will pay for these two researchers to go there," said Rodrigues. "Mello has 22 boxes full of papers, writings and letters that were left behind, but he cannot read Hebrew and no one on the island really can."

The researchers will spend one week in Sao Miguel.

"It's a start. We'll take it from there," said Rodrigues, noting that there have been talks about subsequent visits, including to Lisbon.

The senator said the Azorean-Jewish Heritage Foundation plans to contribute resources, furnishings and equipment for the new museum. The group has also offered to help with the necessary resources to preserve the two Jewish cemeteries on the island.

"After 178 years of its foundation, the synagogue of Ponta Delgada starts a new beginning today, a milestone as important as its foundation was," said Mello at Monday's ceremony. "It represents a more liberal and tolerant Portugal, and the return of the expelled Jews."